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Consecration and mission: proclaiming
the King who is coming 931 Already dedicated to him through Baptism, the
person who surrenders himself to the God he loves above all
else thereby consecrates himself more intimately to
God’s service and to the good of the Church. By this
state of life consecrated to God, the Church manifests
Christ and shows us how the Holy Spirit acts so wonderfully
in her. And so the first mission of those who profess the
evangelical counsels is to live out their consecration.
Moreover, ‘since members of institutes of consecrated
life dedicate themselves through their consecration to the
service of the Church they are obliged in a special manner
to engage in missionary work, in accord with the character
of the institute.’474 932 In
the Church, which is like the sacrament — the sign
and ~ instrument — of God’s own life, the
consecrated life is seen as a special sign of the mystery of
redemption. To follow and imitate Christ more nearly and to
manifest more clearly his self—emptying is to be more
deeply present to one’s contemporaries, in the heart of
Christ. For those who are on this ‘narrower’ path
encourage their brethren by their example, and bear striking
witness ‘that the world cannot be transfigured and
offered to God without the spirit of the Beatitudes’
~ 933 Whether their witness is
public, as in the religious state, or less public, or even
secret, Christ’s coming remains for all those conse-
672 crated both the origin and rising sun of their life:
For the People of God has here no lasting city,...
[and this state] reveals 769 more clearly to
all believers the heavenly goods which are already
present in this age, witnessing to the new and eternal
life which we have acquired through the redemptive work of
Christ and preluding our future
resurrection and the glory of the heavenly kingdom.~~6 934 ‘Among the Christian faithful by divine institution there exist in the Church sacred ministers, who are also called clerics in law, and other Christian faithful who are also called laity.’ In both groups there are those Christian faithful who, professing the evangelical counsels, are consecrated to God and so serve the Church’s saving mission (cf CIC, can. 207 §,~l 1, 2). |
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